5 Seconds of Summer

5 Seconds of Summer is an Australian pop punk/pop rock band that formed on December 3, 2011 in a small town just west of Sydney. The band is made up of Ashton Irwin on drums and vocals, Michael Clifford on lead guitar and vocals, Calum hood on bass guitar and vocals, and Luke Hemmings on guitar and lead vocals.

The band formed after Calum decided to combine his jam sessions with Michael and Luke who didn’t really like each other. He would go between the two to hang out and play with them so they decided it would be best to come together. Luke already had a small following from the various covers that he had been posting on his YouTube channel, Hemmo1996. The guys soon started posting their collective covers on the channel such as Blink-182’s “I Miss You”, A Day To Remember’s “If It Means A Lot To You”, and Go Radio’s “Forever My Father”.

The trio’s Internet popularity soon climbed and they eventually booked their first ever gig. The only problem was that they needed a drummer, so Michael contacted Ashton through Facebook knowing that he was a local drummer. Ashton agreed because after all Michael did ask if he wanted to play to 200 people which turned out to be 12 people other than their family members. Even with the mediocre turnout the guys had a blast and decided that they wanted Ash in the band. On December 16, 2011 the band posted their cover of Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag”. From then on Ashton, the only one with a car and diploma, would pick up the three boys from Norwest Christian College who would constantly skip class to go to band practice. Michael and Calum even dropped out while Luke was unable to as his parents wanted him to further his education if the rockstar career didn’t work out

Their YouTube videos were gaining a lot of attention and even caught the attention of Louis Tomlinson of One Direction who tweeted a link to one of their videos which gained them a lot more attention. They later joined Hot Chelle Rae on their Tour and their opening act and One Direction on their Take Me Home Tour within the first few years of band-hood. They have also joined One Direction on their Where We Are Tour and have done many headlining tours around the world.

5SOS began doing the Mini Australian Tour on weekends while they were still in school and then progressed to doing the Twenty Twelve Tour. They have also done other Austalian tours such as the Pants Down Tour and the There’s No Place Like Home Tour.  They are set to return to OZ to do the Aussie leg of the Rock Out With Your Socks Out Tour in June of 2015.

After getting signed to Capitol Records it was much easier for the band to move to England to produce their music than stay in Australia so they did and began touring there as well. After headlining the UK Tour and opening both of the One Direction tours the band is set to return in May and June for the UK leg of the ROWYSO Tour.

They also lived in Los Angeles, California for a short time over the past few years and reside there as of today as they write and record their second album. They have been on a total of four collective tours around the United States and Canada between the 1D tours and their headlining tours. They were here in April for their Stars, Stripes, and Maple Syrup Tour and have done three shows for the US leg of the ROWYSO Tour which they will finish in July, August, and September.

Their discography is extensive, but mainly consists of EP’s. They started with their Unplugged EP in June of 2012 then later that year they released their first studio EP, Somewhere New. They took a recording break as they toured and then came out with their She Looks So Perfect EP in March of 2014 and then their Don’t Stop Ep in June which was shortly followed by their debut self-entitled album later that month. They also released the Amnesia EP and Good Girls EP with extra songs to go along with the singles from their albums later in 2014. As for 2015 5SOS has released their first live album, LIVESOS, and are currently writing and recording their sophomore album.  

If anyone knows me, they know that I love 5 Seconds of Summer and I can prove that with my three ticket stubs from all across the east coast. I have seen them open on both of the One Direction tours and I saw them on their Stars, Stripes, and Maple Syrup Tour and I already have my ticket for their ROWYSO tour in August. Their sound is great because of their pop-ish sound with punk influences. I plan to be a fan of them for a long time and I can’t wait for what else they have in store.

Made Violent

Made Violent is an Alternative rock band that formed in 2013. It’s made up of Joseph White on lead vocals and bass, Justin Acee on drums, and Rob Romano on guitar. The band was just recently signed to Columbia records and became the record labels newest alternative rock band of 2015.

The three members have been friends since before Joe even graduated high school. Not that Rob and Justin knew that Joe was still in high school, he lied about his age and told them that he was 19. “One of them would buy me a Four Loko and I’d sit on a couch in their practice space and watch them play. Then I’d go to high school in the morning. I told them I was 19.” Said White as he reflected on the past.

The three lads have come a long way since then and have released their debut self-entitled EP, Made Violent. They are currently touring around the United States and they even stopped back to their hometown to play a sold out show to their home crowd in Buffalo, New York that I was lucky enough to attend. The concert was crazy and had a gigantic mosh pit and Joe even shared the stage with us rowdy concert-goers and even encouraged us to stage dive. I was not one that part-took in the stage diving, but the girl that I went with did… twice. They sang some songs off their EP as well as others like “Wasted Days”, “Two Toned Hair”, “Dirty”, “You Had It Easy”, and “Talk About It”.

Made Violent is an amazing band but for me it’s not like any other considering I had the pleasure of attending some of my high school years along with Joe White, or Jose Blanco as was his ‘true’ identity. I was able to see him in all the high school productions of “Into The Woods”, “Crazy For You”, “Anything Goes”, and “The Wizard of OZ”, my sister even did his makeup in all of the productions. Joe was also in a band before Made Violent called Larrabe, which he was also bassist and lead singer in. They even performed at the talent show as well as one of the middle school ‘fun nights’ which I was front row for. I would love to see Made Violent perform again and their music is incredible.

 

Pierce The Veil

Pierce the Veil is a post-hardcore band from San Diego, California. The band is also classified as progressive rock, emo, and experimental rock. Pierce the Veil is made up of all its original members and it was founded by brother’s Mike and Vic Fuentes in 2006. Vic is lead vocals, guitar and keyboard while Mike does all the drumming and percussion. By 2007, Tony Perry joined on guitar and Jaime Preciado joined on bass guitar. Jaime also does backing vocals.

Vic and Mike were previously in a band called Before Today, and after the band broke up the two continued creating music. Not long after the formation of Pierce the Veil they already had enough for their first studio album as a band, A Flair For the Dramatic. The name Pierce the Veil came from two of the songs from the Before Today album, A Celebration For an Ending.

Shortly after the release of their first album they began touring for around three months straight. They toured with All Time Low, A Day To Remember, Mayday Parade, Sleeping With Sirens as well as others. In late 2008 they embarked on their first headline tour, The Delicious Tour, after they were on the entire 2008 Vans Warped Tour.

In 2009, Pierce the Veil announced that they were writing and recording their second studio album, Selfish Machines. Vic Fuentes chimed in on the title’s meaning saying "The title refers to human nature and the animal-like qualities inside all of us that we try and hide, but should just learn to accept. We are all selfish machines and we all have natural tendencies to want, love, and take." It debuted at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in June of 2009.

The band soon went off to play a lot of festivals and concerts such as Warped Tour. They also did headlining and co-headlining tours with bands such as We Came As Romans, A Day To Remember, Escape the Fate, and Bring Me The Horizon. While touring the world the band decided that they wanted to switch record labels and soon became a part of Fearless Records and left Equal Vision Records.

During their constant touring the band began to write for their third studio album, Collide With the Sky, which featured their song, King For A Day with guest vocals from Sleeping With Siren’s Kellin Quinn. Collide With The Sky also featured their hit song Bull In The Bronx. With the new album they began touring again including Vans Warped Tour, a UK headlining tour, The Collide With The Sky tour, a co-headling Spring Fever Tour with All Time Low, and their most recent co-headling tour with Sleeping With Sirens, The World Tour. They are also rumored (as of mid-March) to be joining the 2015 Vans Warped Tour. Their next album is in the works and is rumored to be released sometime in 2015.

PTV has always been one of my favorite bands and I love their music. Their songs are so real and most of the lyrics I can relate to or I know someone personally that can relate to them.

 

The 1975

The 1975 is an indie rock band from Cheshire, England. They became a band in 2012 and currently reside in Manchester. Matt(y) Healy (Vocals, guitar), Adam Hann (guitar), George Daniel (drums, backing vocals) and Ross MacDonald (bass) met in high school. They became friends and started playing music together, but they didn’t become a legitimate band until about eight years later. They have been a part of Dirty Hit, Polydor UK, Vagrant, and Interscope records.

The band has had four EPs and one studio album between 2012 and 2015, all of which have gained national airplay in England. Their first single to have radio airtime was “The City” which was from their Debut EP, Facedown. Towards the end of 2012 the band released their next EP, Sex, which featured their next hit “Sex”.

The 1975 was on a roll by the end of 2012 and continued to put out music. This continued with their Music for Cars EP in November of 2013. Their last and most recent EP, IV, was released in May of 2013. This was the lead up to their first self-entitled studio album that was released in September of 2013 which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Over the course of their music career, The 1975 have toured with bands like The Neighborhood, Muse, and have ecen opened for The Rolling Stones at one of their pop-up shows in July of 2013 when they played Hyde Park.

While their name is unique and one would think that it has some personal meaning to at least one of the members it doesn’t. Matt Healy thought of using the name for the band after finding it in the back of a book that he got off a friend when he was 19. He had received many old books from the man and in the back of one of them was an entry that ‘It was all quite mad, quite suicidal” and it was dated ‘1st of June, The 1975” which caught Matty’s attention. The band mulled over other names such as Drive Like I Do, The Slowdown, Talkhouse, and Bigsleep.

         I love The 1975 and all of their music. It’s so soulful and you can hear the emotion in Matty’s voice while he sings. Adam, Ross, and George play their instruments so well and they are just such an awesome band. I would love to see them live, but they unfortunately haven’t come near Buffalo on any of their previous US tours.